Reports: earnings

In this report MIDiA presents, contrasts and analyses headline financial metrics of 12 leading music industry companies across labels, publishers, streaming and live. The companies tracked represent more than half of total global music industry revenues across these sectors.

Q2 2018 delivered contrasting milestones for the tech majors with Apple becoming the first company to have a trillion-dollar market capitalisation while Facebook simultaneously saw the single biggest one-day loss in market capitalisation in the history of US stock exchanges.

Spotify’s Q2 2018 earnings show continued solid progress across most of its performance metrics. However, investor scrutiny is intensifying, especially with the growing subscriber arms race in the US becoming — albeit incorrectly — perceived as a litmus test for global success.

On the 2 May 2018 Spotify released its first quarterly earnings. The results fundamentally represent a continuation of the figures presented in Spotify’s F1 filing and show strong results across most performance metrics. Nonetheless, investors were not satisfied (apparently spooked by growing losses), resulting in a dip in Spotify’s stock price.

Snap Inc’s Q4 results bookend the company’s dramatic first year of being a publicly listed company. 2017 was the year Snap has had to effectively admit that its rebranding as “a camera company” has, for the moment, failed to deliver—recall Q3’s $40 million write down of unsold Snap Spectacle inventory.

Snap’s public performance has been turbulent and its stock price has been on a downward trajectory during its debut year under the forensic scrutiny of Wall Street. Share prices fell from $17 during the March IPO, to $12.65 in Q3 2017. This has placed pressure on the management team to adopt a new strategy to, reassure the increasingly sceptical financial markets.

Apple continued its sales momentum this quarter with the launch of hardware products such as iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models in September. Both smartphones have incorporated new features, such as augmented reality (AR) technology and wireless charging, to meet the demands of its pre-existing consumer base as well as to attract new users.

Netflix has achieved a commercial milestone in becoming the first Subscriber Video On Demand (SVOD) service company to have over 100 million paying streaming subscribers. Netflix has managed to attract 109.3 million consumers to its SVOD platform. This continued success has exceeded external expectations that Netflix’s growth rate might be impacted by its decision to increase standard membership prices in both UK and US markets.

Snap Inc’s release of its second quarter earnings has been met with negative reception from the financial sector, as the company’s Q2 2017 financial results, which was below analyst revenue projections, led to a corresponding slump in its stock price.

Spotify’s 2016 accounts reveal strong growth in both revenue and user, as well as improved conversion to paid. But they also show growing losses (both in absolute and relative terms) for streaming music’s leading player. The health of Spotify is a bellwether for the health of the streaming music market and its current prognosis is that it is fit and healthy now, but that will end sometime unless it improves its lifestyle.

Following the release of its first earnings call since the March IPO, Snapchat creator Snap Inc has seen its stock price drop by 22% to $17.95, its lowest price since going public. The price fall reflects Wall Street’s reticence in taking the long-term view when It comes to tech stocks.